Monday, December 29, 2014

Number 1676: Death stalks the Bayou!

Joe Kubert did this surprising torture cover, a teaser for the lead story of Nightmare #12 (1954). I say surprising because it is fairly graphic: hanging people, the rack, hot coals. Ouch! Joe drew his share of horror comics during this period, since he could draw almost anything, but this was a period of heavy criticism of horror comics. This was probably bad timing.

I was disappointed that the Grand Comics Database has no idea of the artist of “Death Stalks the Bayou.” It is extremely well done in an illustrative style. And there are even a couple more torture scenes.









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9 comments:

  1. Unknown3:55 AM

    Really nice art. Despite what you said about the shocking cover, Pappy, I think the story itself was pretty tame, at least in what was visually depicted. We saw little blood, none of the actual torture sessions, and even Nina and Tomaso turned to dust between panels.
    I see you've now got 678 registered members. Congrats!

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  2. Pappy5:58 AM

    Ryan, the story reminded me of the shudder pulps of the '30s. As subject matter I don't usually like stories that involve torture. I showed this because I like the artwork.

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  3. J_D_La_Rue_6710:00 AM

    Another good story, the spanish (?) enclave in Lousiana's swamp looks like an "evil Shangri-La", and also makes me think of the legendary Fountain of Youth. It may be a place populated by ghosts or people trapped in a sort of "twilight zone", as the hero himself seems to be in the last panel.
    The word "padrone" = "master" (page 7) is actually italian, I think the Spanish is "dueño" and possibly "padron"...
    Anyway, I really wish I could spot the artist here. Unfortunately I'm no expert at all, but the artwork gives me a "deja vu" feeling.
    Some panels reminded me of Alberto Giolitti's work, 1954 would be fine, but I think he worked only for Western/Dell, so...

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  4. Brian Barnes10:27 AM

    The artwork is great, but what was really stunning about this was the coloring. How many pre-code comics have terrible coloring? Many of them, but this was a great job, from the shadows and light to the dark patches around the king's eyes.

    The smoke on the last page is another nice coloring job. It actually looks relatively modern.

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  5. Russ11:24 AM

    Quite a few (exceptionally well done) Alex Raymond swipes, but it may be Doug Wildey. Compare it to that run of Tarzan he did for Gold Key. He was a contemporary of Kubert, I think, but I'm not sure about the timing.

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  6. Russ11:28 AM

    Oh, I just remembered, Wildey was drawing the Outlaw Kid in 1954. What do you think?

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  7. Charles R. Rutledge3:44 PM

    Hmm, I'm stumped on the art. In some ways it looks like Angelo Torres or Reed Crandall, but not so much the finishes.

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  8. J_D_La_Rue_673:47 AM

    For what it's worth, I'd pick Wildey.
    I checked some of his work and it fits the story's jungle scenario and general style of human figures in motion (two elements that reminded me of Giolitti).
    I think I saw some of his stuff as a kid, didn't know the name though.
    Nevertheless, Torres is very near...

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  9. Pappy9:06 AM

    Guys, I am 1600 miles from Pappy Central, so I am only getting to my blog intermittently.

    I think Wildey is a good choice as the artist, but the fact he was also working on Outlaw Kid probably isn't that big of a deal; artists went where they could get assignments, and who knows when anything was drawn? It could have been inventory.

    Anyway, I don't know if it is Doug Wildey or not; I have seen a lot of his work, but it doesn't make me an expert on him.

    For the coloring I think you might consider Joe Kubert. He did really dynamic coloring on his Tor comics.

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